So it makes me wonder. Through the experiences that I have had at church why restoration, isn’t really restoration. I have seen two pastors, I personally know, fail morally in the positions they held, one in particular was in the very church that I was attending. Why is it that we as believers never reached out to help restore the one to who they are in Christ? Why was it that we were never given the opportunity to forgive and love? To show mercy? Why does this seem to become a common occurrence. I understand if the person is unwilling to change, etc. But what if they show an act of repentance? What if they want to change? Why is it that they are “shunned” or turned away from the very people who want to love them and care for them and help a brother and sister out who are struggling. Why do we leave them in the cold, why do we close the door and keep “hush hush” about things? Why do we force them to integrate into a new part of the body? Why is our relationships with these people circumstantially based on our church attendance. We don’t reach out to them outside the church.
My view probably seems jaded simply because of the things I have seen. While they are one sided and I don’t know the whole angle on everything. My guess is if things were supposed to go the way they were, I’d not be having these doubts, and these questions. I wouldn’t be wondering about the body and what is going on.
These are a lot of questions that will go unanswered…I hope my life demonstrates something different than this.
(P.S. I am not saying this is the case for every church, but this is what I’ve lived through. This is what I have seen. I’m not pointing the finger at your church or any other church.)
I do not think that your view is jaded I have seen the same thing.
I think this is an important issue. It might be partly to do with the fact that people can place a pastor on a pedestal and when the fallen human fails and cracks it shatters our illusions. People like to kick someone when they are down. It’s shameful. The church has many failings but it is because it is made up of fallen people like that pastor who falls off his pedestal.
I lived through this three years ago. My dad had been the pastor at the church for 14 years and he had a moral failing. It was not THE moral failing, but still, he needed to repent and change.
The elders found out Wednesday night. Thursday morning called my dad in and said he had 24 hours to empty his office or they would throw things in the dumpster.
No restoration. No mercy. No love. Nothing that resembled Jesus’s heart.
I wish this was an exception, but it’s not. People are so obsessed with sin and eradicating outward sin in people’s life that they don’t realize the only way you can do that is through the power of Christ changing your heart! It’s like the Pharisees all over again. No rules, no law, no punishment can really change people’s hearts, only God can do that!
It reminds me of Matt. 22:29 when Jesus was criticizing the Sadducees and he said, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.”
I believe a major problem in the Church today is simply that: we don’t know the Scriptures and because of that, we don’t recognize God’s power, especially God’s power to change people from the inside out.
is this the chris baker that was youth pastor at pbc, porterville